Republicans declared it ‘crypto’ week in the House. It’s not going as planned
WASHINGTON AP A trio of cryptocurrency bills that had been expected to pass the House this week stalled Tuesday after a bloc of Republicans unexpectedly joined with Democrats to prevent the law from coming up for debate and votes The procedural snafu brought the House s so-called crypto week to a standstill and dealt a blow to President Donald Trump who had strongly urged Republicans to pass the bills as part of his push to make the U S the crypto capital of the world Trump intervened during a late evening meeting with Republicans at the White House and appeared to put the bills back on track He posted on social media that he expected votes as soon as Wednesday A group of Republicans had joined all Democrats in opposition to a procedural vote needed to bring the crypto bills to the floor Speaker Mike Johnson informed reporters it was just part of the legislative process and that negotiations were underway between the House Senate and White House He suggested they could try again Tuesday evening We expected there might be selected no votes but we thought it was fundamental to put it on the floor to advance it because time s of the essence on this Johnson declared So stay tuned We ll have lots of discussions over the next minimal hours But just hours later House leadership canceled votes for the remainder of the day potentially throwing the crypto bills into limbo Then late in the evening Trump posted that he was having a White House meeting with lawmakers and had won their patronage to vote for the procedural step I am in the Oval Office with of the Congressmen women necessary to pass the GENIUS Act and after a short discussion they have all agreed to vote the following day morning in favor of the Rule Trump revealed on social media referring to the step The president commented that Johnson attended via telephone and looks forward to taking the Vote as early as realizable The stalled rule includes a Senate-passed bill to regulate a form of cryptocurrency known as stablecoins along with far more sweeping measures aiming to address cryptocurrency sector structure Another bill would prohibit the Federal Reserve from issuing a central bank digital currency The disagreement blocking the bills from advancing centers on how the three bills would be passed Johnson explained that selected of these guys insist that it requirements to be all in one package Packaging the bills would require them to be sent back to the Senate since the chamber has only taken up one of the three bills so far Rep Glenn Thompson of Pennsylvania a Republican co-sponsor of one of the cryptocurrency bills informed reporters that chosen of the Republicans requested to package the bills together due to them not having a lot of faith in the Senate moving our decree Trump and Republican leaders have called on the House to pass the bills individually so that the stablecoin act can get to Trump s desk for his signature before an August recess The stablecoin bill took the Senate nearly a month and half to pass and the more sweeping domain structure decree is expected to take even longer In a post Tuesday morning on social media Trump had called on Republicans to advance the crypto bills that afternoon saying that all Republicans should vote yes Required Tuesday evening about the stalled bill Trump informed reporters that Republicans who voted against it craved it to be stronger Trump has pushed hard for the passage of the stablecoin regulation with him and his family standing to profit from a boost to stablecoins They hold a notable stake in World Liberty Financial a crypto project that in recent times launched its own stablecoin USD The stablecoin law passed by the Senate includes a provision that bars members of Congress and their families from profiting off stablecoins But notably that prohibition does not apply to the president or his family even as Trump builds what certain are calling a crypto empire from the White House The cryptocurrency industry hopes the bills as a whole will aid in their push for legitimacy and increasing consumer trust And road bumps like those seen Tuesday may not have been expected after spending heavily in the balloting to elect a large number of crypto-friendly lawmakers Faryar Shirzad chief agenda officer of Coinbase the nation s largest cryptocurrency exchange disclosed in a report after the failed procedural vote that every limited strategies forward there s inevitably a step back It s in these moments we ll see who is trying to get pro-crypto statute done and who is not Shirzad announced on social media Passage of the bills could have implications on the midterm races Fairshake a crypto super political action committee revealed that it and its affiliated organizations already have more than million in the bank ready to spend on midterm races The voters last year were clear Congress requirements to stop playing politics with crypto and definitively pass responsible regulation stated Josh Vlasto spokesperson for Fairshake We are building an aggressive targeted strategy for next year to ensure that pro-crypto voices are heard in key races across the country Associated Press writer Lisa Mascaro contributed to this summary Source
